Last Saturday the folks and I ventured off to the historic mining town of
Cripple Creek. The destination was the
Butte Opera House for the Thin Air Theatre Company's presentation of "Dr. Jekyll's Medicine Show." It is set in Cripple Creek at the turn of the century and takes the traditional tale of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde to a whole new realm. The young man cast in the part of Jekyll was fabulous. You know in the old movies he was portrayed in different makeup to show the two sides of his personality. In this case, no makeup was used and the metamorphis was amazing.
Of course they do not allow you to take any photos of the performance but I did get some good ones of us at the performance with our guest, Count DracuBear. And he got the best seat in the house - inside Dad's cowboy hat.
The rest of the crew were happy just to pose with him. He is a freebie that Hallmark was offering this year before Halloween if you purchased three cards. And as you can see Mom is making sure we all know that he is devilishly handsome.
And here are my partners-in-crime for their photo op with the wee vampire.
And that rare pic of me over there.
This theater group is made up of the remnants of the Imperial and Cripple Creek players and is known for its melodrama performances. This show and the one they are doing for the holiday season are both newly written and directed by local talent. And, as is tradition, there was a spooky, Halloween-themed olio after the main performance. This is where the cast put on short skits with singing and dancing. The funniest was the fake magic show complete with a successful Houdini-like escape trick (good thing his assistant knew how to untie the knot on the giant laundry sack he was trussed up in) and the disappearing lion trick. Can't tell you the secret because, after all, this is magic.
After a lovely autumn day in the high country we headed home to the news that a possible winter storm was on its way. The next morning, sure enough, Jack Frost made a feeble attempt to let his wintery intentions be known. 
And the best part of the newscast is where they show the traffic cams around the region. This picture is taken from the roof of the Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park. The newscaster, and the rest of us, get such a chuckle out of the palm trees in snow shots. They are plastic palm trees but all the same it is too funny to see this in a blizzard in the mountains of Colorado.
So this was a good day to stay indoors, watch movies and knit. Pedro had other ideas and begged to go outside to see what was going on. I let him out to look and he decided I had the best idea about staying indoors. Stay warm, enjoy!
Even though over the years the productions have become more professional with paid actors for the parts in the Thin Air Players, this group showed their mettle and hard work under the tutelage of the director, our favorite Mel Moser. I hope we see more of these kind of productions in conjuction with the season of "professional" productions. 
